New inquiry into 'inefficient' OFT

Tuesday 16 May 2006 18.58 EDT
First published on Tuesday 16 May 2006 18.58 EDT

MPs are to launch a fresh investigation into the running of the Office of Fair Trading after deciding that the competition watchdog is still not giving the public value for money despite receiving a 70% boost in its budget.

The Commons public accounts committee yesterday criticised the agency for inefficiency, saying it must reduce the length of investigations, choose subjects more carefully and use staff more effectively. The report said that the agency had a huge turnover of staff and was too reliant on complaints and not enough on its own initiative to launch new investigations. Many of the teams investigating companies were too small and it reached too few decision every year. Its most successful investigation has been into price-fixing of replica sports kit, notably affecting Manchester United and England

The report revealed that many of the staff did not have investigative skills and it had too few trained lawyers. Since the criticism from MPs the agency has transferred all its 65 lawyers to the enforcement division, so they could give stronger legal backing to investigations. Even so only a third of its case officers were trained lawyers and less than half of its principal case officers had legal training.

Edward Leigh, the committee's Tory chairman, said: "The Office of Fair Trading, the main body for enforcing competition law and preventing anti-competitive behaviour, is at a critical point as it responds to being given increased powers and substantially greater resources."